BesGnuLinux: a Lightweight, Fast, Furious, and Stable Distro

The FOSS Force Distro of the Week — BesGnuLinux

BesGnuLinux calls itself lightweight, useful, and stable — but after a wild ride with version 3-0, you might find it’s got a lot more ‘fast and furious’ under the hood.

In case you’re wondering, here’s how I choose a distro to be FOSS Force’s Distro of the Week. Unless I get a directive handed down from our editor Christine Hall, I am usually left to my own devices, meaning I’m free to choose whatever distro I find most interesting or relevant for the week.

Sometimes I scour places like article archives or Distrowatch to see which distros have been updated recently. I even visit distrowiz.com to take their interesting AI-driven quiz to see what distros each particular test throws up. This week I’m going with Distrowatch, which recently reported that the Turkish distro Besgnulinux has released version 3-0 a few weeks ago (and yes, the distro uses a dash instead of a dot in its versioning), so that’s our choice today.

Besgnulinux has been around since 2017. The latest version is based on the recent release of Debian Trixie (stable) and features the lightweight JWM window manager as a way to conserve resources. This fits a Besgnulinux mandate to enable computers to run long after their prime. For the most part, the distro succeeds in this endeavor.

This can be seen in the distro’s system requirements. For 3-0, you’ll need a 64-bit computer (although you can still run 32-bit hardware by running version 2-9 — upstream Debian dropped 32-bit support with Trixie), a trivial 250 MB RAM and 8 GB storage.

Installing BesGnuLinux

Downloading Besgnulinux’s 3 GB ISO was painless and took roughly eight minutes, which is a little less than the usual time for a ISO download on my system. Creating a live USB flash drive took a few minutes, and after checking the live version for any glitches — there were none — installing Besgnulinux 3-0 onto the two test laptops was a breeze.

Besgnulinux uses a modified Calamares installer, and the install was pretty standard: location, keyboard, partitions, user info, passwords, summary, and off you go. The install went quickly and several minutes later we were updating the system.

One nice trick that’s not common to all distros, is that on Besgnulinux 3-0 first boot, it picks up the same WiFi channel that was used during the install from the live USB. It’s a minor detail, but one that deserves mentioning because not all distros are set up this way.

Helpful hint: before you start using BesGnuLinux, if you encounter an archive extraction error when working with compressed files, the official BesGnuLinux website recommends running the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt install atool -y && sudo apt remove file-roller

This solution is intended for users who experience problems extracting archives after installation—especially when using the default graphical archive manager in the desktop environment. If you don’t use compressed files, you may never see this issue, but if it does occur, this command should resolve it.

With that, you’re ready to go.

Using BesGnuLinux

I have a confession to make, and I do so sheepishly. When I saw ‘GNU Linux’ in the distro’s name, I’ll admit that I didn’t expect much. In my experience, distros that emphasize ‘GNU Linux’ in their branding often focus more on tradition than innovation. Fortunately, I was in for a rude – albeit a very pleasant – awakening.

The amount of software that installs by default on Besgnulinux 3-0 is pretty astounding, and offers users – whether neophyte or veteran – amazing choices right from the start.

Let’s look at the tool selection that Besgnulinux includes, for instance. There are 40 of them, some of which I had never heard of before this install. They’re mostly custom made specifically for the distro — to help control system settings as well as for the desktop’s look and feel. It’s not that the distro really needs them, but they’re certainly nice to have around.

Eclipsing that is the fact that Besgnulinux gets everything right in the app department — installed by default.

It includes the LibreOffice suite, and includes an e-mail client — Sylpheed — which works admirably. In addition, there’s the Vim text editor — a Linux standard — along with such Linux classics as GParted and the Synaptic Package Manager — which makes adding software a breeze.

The distro includes a wide variety of games like Aisle Riot Solitare, Mahjongg, 2048, Chess, and Tetravex. Inkscape leads the way in the graphics department, while SMPlayer and mpv media player are also available in the multimedia department, even though I did install VLC media player out of habit.

Besgnulinux had to switch browsers for version 3-0 from Brave to Chromium because the former was taking too long to load, according to the Besgnulinux web page. But that’s fine, as the browser acted well even on complex sites, and transferring photos from the laptops to Google Drive was painlessly easy.

The distro provides a wide range of system control software as well, such as Advanced Network Configuration — for those who dare to go there — and Firewall Configuration. Indeed, clicking on the System Menu is, in and of itself, a virtual trek into the workings of your computer. It even includes ClamTK, the graphical front end for ClamAV antivirus, just in case…

One of the perks of using Besgnulinux is the availability of Conky. As a longtime BunsenLabs user, I learned to appreciate knowing what my system is doing under the hood, and Conky is probably the best system monitor available. Besgnulinux’s Conky Control option gives you a choice of how much you can see of your system, ranging its positioning on the left or right, with further options of Full, Big, Smart and Mini.

The distro also offers a high performance experience. With resource consumption hovering around 500 MB overall, even at its busiest, Besgnulinux easily handled multiple tasks simultaneously, with each task running smoothly.

One caution, however: although the release notes for the distro indicate that it’s lacking a touchpad driver, there were no issues using the touchpads on either of the laptops in our test. Your mileage may vary, as the car ads say.

Final Thoughts

Besgnulinux 3-0 is an enigma, but in a good way. Of all the distros I’ve tested so far — and this goes back to when I first started writing this column — Besgnulinux 3-0 is by far the most complete and comprehensive to come across my desk. Once again, it was a far cry from my initial expectations before installing it. I have to confess, when the installer displayed images of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds and Ian Murdock — icons of free software, Linux and Debian respectively — I did a conscious eyeroll, expecting a throwback experience. But I digress.

The way the developers have put so much software under the hood, and have that software perform so remarkably well while only sipping resources, is nothing short of an engineering feat. This distro easily gives other lightweight distros — BunsenLabs, antiX, among others — a run for their money in the keeping-old-computers-running department. Conversely, using this distro with newer hardware is an absolute joy.

As for ease-of-use, Besgnulinux 3-0 can easily be run by users new to Linux, even if the sheer number of software titles could be intimidating. It was to me a bit, and I’ve been around the Linux block several times. Experienced users would have nothing short of a field day with the number of tools available in this distro.

The distro is definitely deserving of a tryout, if you’re thinking about changing your Linux setup. Besgnulinux 3-0 can be downloaded from SourceForge.

Do you have a distro you think would make a great feature for FOSS Force’s Distro of the Week? Don’t be shy—let us know! Offer your suggestions in the comments below (or use the contact us link under our masthead) and we’ll make an effort to make it so… No suggestion is too mainstream or too niche—let us know what you’d like to see!